How the Amazon Warehouse Works

[pontalba]

A friend sent this link to me, and I thought it was pretty amazing.

 

Have to see it to believe it.  Amazon strikes again. 

 

http://www.chonday.com/Videos/how-the-amazon-warehouse-works

[Kylie]

Wow, that is so cool! Thanks for sharing. I feel like ordering something from Amazon just so I can send one of those little cuties off to get my item.

[Athena]

That's very cool! Thanks for sharing the link .

 

EDIT: I showed my dad the video, he hadn't seen it before (he liked it) but he knows the creator of the robots, Raff d'Andrea. He's a professor of ETH in Z"urich.

Edited March 5, 2014 by Athena

[vodkafan]

Ah I couldn't get this to load at work it crashed the PC. It sounds interesting..

[Kell]

Something tells me the UK warehouses don't work this way, but the American ones are the biz! If only we'd had something like this when I was working in the Argos stockroom - my life would have been a whole lot easier!!!!!

[pontalba]

  Glad y'all enjoyed it! 

I had no idea that they used that sort of technology, and find it amazing it all goes so smoothly! 

 

Gaia!  That is so very cool!  Amazing invention, to say the least. 

 

VF, I hope you were able to see it later. 

 

Kylie, /giggle/  me too! 

 

Kell, I can't believe that the U.K. Amazon will be that far behind in getting them, if in fact they don't already.  It's only a matter of time.

[Brian.]

I know that the staff in the Bletchley/Milton Keynes warehouses pick the orders by hand. They even find themselves running at times to keep up with the quota that they are set.

[LittleW]

I knew they have robots in warehouses. But I always thougt, the storage is 3 or more storeys high and the robots only pick up the required item. 

But maybe that's just another kind to handle things.

[bobblybear]

That was really interesting. I had no idea they used robots....I assumed it was done by hand.

[LittleW]

No kidding, bobblybear????
None of those online markets would work, if it's all done by hand!!!!

[pontalba]

I really didn't know how they managed it, I'd read about how the workers have schedules, and quotas etc, and didn't think of teeny robots running around doing half the running.  Pretty neat.  I suppose all of the warehouses will have that sort of thing, eventually.  Probably to varying degrees, but still. 

 

LOL  I mean, really, Amazon are the guys that want same day delivery with drones.  heh   

[Kylie]

No kidding, bobblybear????

None of those online markets would work, if it's all done by hand!!!!

 

Actually I think it's quite surprising. There aren't too many such companies that would be able to afford such technology. I think Amazon would definitely be the exception rather than the rule. I'm sure I've heard/read stories about other companies where employees use Segways or bikes to traverse huge warehouses.

[bobblybear]

No kidding, bobblybear????

None of those online markets would work, if it's all done by hand!!!!

 

No kidding, so you'll have to pardon my apparent ignorance.    In the UK, the Amazon warehouse is run and co-ordinated mostly by people, not robots, and it seems to work fine.

[pontalba]

Truth is, an automated system of this sort is fairly new, as far as I know.  I can't imagine it is terribly widespread yet. 

Now, there have been things like conveyor belts, and trolleys to carry things from, say one end of a factory to the other.  But Amazon's system is far and above that.  And, you'll note, the human factor is still in there.  The human has to pluck the exact item from the "pod" the robot carries to and fro. 

LOL, that'll the next thing to go.  heh

 

And then there are the proposed Amazon drones for same day delivery........can't wait for that one!!

[BSchultz19]

I think the most amazing part is that the robots run smoothly on the "highway" without any crashes. Unless, of course, they didn't show what happens when they crash...